Lynn Ramsay’s “Die My Love” is the latest endurance test from the Scottish filmmaker who had me with her stunning “Ratcatcher” (1999) and lost me with her subsequent work.
When we meet Grace (Jennifer Lawrence), she is crawling through a field and holding a butcher knife. Her husband, Jackson (Robert Pattinson), who is also the father of her child, engages Grace with affection but also fights her verbally and physically.
Grace hasn’t been the same since the birth of her child, and a wildness within them causes their home to become a setting for one crazy outburst and shocking act after another.
Post-“Ratcatcher,” Ramsay’s films are always visually striking but also insufferable, self-indulgent and mean. I hated Ramsay’s 2011 “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” which gave a tasteless, self-consciously arthouse spin on the topic of school shootings.
Ramsay likes her characters far more than her audience.
The two leads give snarling performances, the kind that is riveting to watch in an acting workshop but too much when the camera goes for a close-up.
“Die My Love” starts with the dial cranked up to CRAZY and just keeps going. There’s no real story. You just sit and wait for something bad to happen, and the film never disappoints.
The soundtrack irritates as much as this couple. Unless you’re a die-hard fan of the leads, this is one of the biggest movie endurance tests of 2025.
Jennifer Lawrence on portraying motherhood in Die My Love. #LFF pic.twitter.com/5ekeaY7Dua
— BFI (@BFI) October 17, 2025
Before the first hour is over, I’ve seen Lawrence crawl on all fours, lick a windowpane, make childish faces, mock her dog, masturbate, scream and make even more faces. Pattinson, not to be outdone, paces around like he’s in a farce, makes faces at Lawrence and reverts to his awful “Twilight” American accent.
A better title for this than “Die My Love” is “When Actors Attack.” This movie is a freak show and I hate that the appeal of working with Ramsay pulled in two fantastic actors who should be beyond making low-budget junk like this. Lawrence and Pattinson are at a point in their careers where they can be much choosier than a decade ago.
Lawrence doesn’t need another “House at the End of the Street” (2012) or “Serena” (2014) and Pattinson has, hopefully, graduated from the likes of “Little Ashes” (2009) and “Remember Me” (2010). Both actors deserve the acclaim they’ve acquired, as they’re reliably great in just about everything. “Die My Love” is not worthy of them and will hopefully become a footnote.
The scenes with Sissy Spacek and Nick Nolte are such a breath of fresh air, as they ground their characters and justify their presence in the story.
Lawrence’s best moment comes late in the film, when she makes a confession regarding her parents. She’s compelling in the scene because, other than everything that came before it, Lawrence appears to be invested in her character and not just winging it through yet another scene where she acts bananas.
A secret that most actors don’t share is that it’s not difficult to act “crazy.” It’s actually much harder to convey “normal” and commit to the growth and nuances of a character.
Some actresses who have provided master classes playing women becoming unglued are Elizabeth Taylor in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” (1966), Kathy Bates in “Misery” (1990) and Isabelle Adjani in “Possession” (1981), to name just a few. There was nuance and control to those performances.
Nothing Lawrence or Pattinson does here approaches that. Here’s another rule of acting, particularly when you’re improvising: not every instinct is a good one.
“Die My Love” has some splendid visuals and is so thoroughly bonkers that it’s never dull. Ramsay has lots of talent, and I will revisit “Ratcatcher” again but I’m growing tired of her recent cinematic torture sessions.
Lawrence’s performance in Darren Aronofsky’s “Mother!” (2017) and that film’s scenario of going mad in an isolated environment, far outshines everything in this movie.
In fact, “Mother!,” all is forgiven.
One Star
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